“Battle for Brooklyn,” a documentary about the unending mess that is the Atlantic Yards project, is unabashedly slanted and as a result will probably be dismissed by those it portrays unflatteringly. That’s unfortunate, because this film should be discouraging and dismaying for people on all sides of the project, for what it says about oversize expectations and missed opportunities.

Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley certainly know how to edit film to make public officials sound like manipulative weasels or clueless buffoons, and that’s what they do here as they tell the story of Bruce Ratner’s billion-dollar plans for a huge Brooklyn development centered on a basketball arena, and the residents and businesses displaced by it. One particular apartment owner who held out to the last, Daniel Goldstein, is the focus of the film, which was shot over eight years. In the course of it, he goes from reluctant victim of a developer’s unstoppable plan to ardent activist, affecting his personal life in dramatic ways.

The film is full of bombastic promises about jobs and other benefits from Mr. Ratner and the politicians who support him. With the project now a shell of its former self, they seem particularly outrageous. But it will be years yet before the definitive story of this exercise in urban reinvention can be told.

BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN

Opens on Friday in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley; director of photography, Mr. Galinsky; edited by Ms. Hawley; music by David Reid and Derek Bermel; produced by Ms. Hawley, Mr. Galinsky and David Beilinson; released by Rumur Inc. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. This film is not rated.

Battle for Brooklyn

NYT Critic’s Pick

DirectorsMichael Galinsky, Suki Hawley

Running Time1h 33m

GenresDocumentary, Drama

Movie data powered by IMDb.com
Last updated: Nov 2, 2017

A version of this review appears in print on June 17, 2011, on Page C10 of the New York edition with the headline: Movie Review | 'Battle for Brooklyn'. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe